Overnight TV Ratings -- "Men In Trees" Needs Help; Baseball Doesn't

It seems obvious ABC should try pairing its drama "Men In Trees" with the potent "Ugly Betty" and "Grey's Anatomy" combo on Thursdays. Despite a very weak lead in with "Trading Spouses" and stiff competition from out of the box game show hit "1 Vs. 100" and "Close To Home," "Men In Trees" managed to increase the audience from its lead-in by almost 30% and even a modest uptick in the 18-49 demo. Saturday and Sunday, baseball looks fine, despite the worries just mentioned earlier today. Saturday drew 11.73 million viewers and Sunday drew 16.47 million viewers. Those overnight ratings can change but that's a big jump from game one to game two and given the quality of the games and the fact that we're going to see a real dogfight, I think they'll keep growing. (Any World Series that goes six or seven games tends to get big ratings.) Yep, they're way down from the heyday of the WS, but a four game sweep would have meant diastrous ratings. These should avoid the cellar and that's something. "Desperate Housewives" has stabilized on Sunday, but its lead-out of "Brothers & Sisters" (which ABC inexplicably renewed for an entire season) is a disaster at 10 p.m., barely holding on to 60% of its lead-in. Check MediaWeek's Marc Berman for a full rundown of the weekend ratings.